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SearchToday in Islamophobia: A shooting at a Norwegian mosque leaves one injured, after a worshipper tackles down the gunman. An op-ed by CJ Werleman implores Muslims preparing to set out on Hajj to keep Uighurs in their minds. Our recommended read of the day is by Jo Becker who uncovers how Swedish society operates as a ‘disinformation machine,’ fostering the rampant spread of far-right and nationalist ideologies. This, and more, below:
International
The Global Machine Behind the Rise of Far-Right Nationalism | Recommended Read
That nativist rhetoric — that immigrants are invading the homeland — has gained ever-greater traction, and political acceptance, across the West amid dislocations wrought by vast waves of migration from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. In its most extreme form, it is echoed in the online manifesto of the man accused of gunning down 22 people last weekend in El Paso. read the complete article
Op-ed | As Muslims head to Hajj, they should pray to end apathy towards Uyghurs
Until recently, leaders of many Muslim countries chose to either stay silent on China’s crackdown on Muslims or pretend they know nothing about it when pressed by international reporters, as typified by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan who replied, “Frankly, I don’t know much about that” when asked by the Financial Times how he felt about China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Others have done far worse, however, and by worse I mean actually parrot Beijing’s propaganda. read the complete article
Op-ed | Will Congress hold those who commit and profit from genocide accountable?
The next phase of the genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is underway. Congress can help stop it by passing a National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that incorporates what the House passed a few weeks ago — sanctions on military-controlled business conglomerates that funded the genocide and are now underwriting its cover-up. read the complete article
Man who stormed mosque 'armed with shotguns' was inspired by Christchurch and El Paso attackers, messaging board post suggests
The suspect has not been officially identified by police but was named in reports as Philip Manshaus, a 21-year-old local man. Hours before the attack at the at the al-Noor Islamic Centre in Bærum in Saturday, a user of the same name posted on a "chan" messaging board. “Well cobbers [friends] it’s my time, I was elected by [Christchurch mosque attacker] saint Tarrant after all,” it said. “We can’t let this go on.” read the complete article
United States
For Japanese Americans, ‘The Terror’ is personal
“We went from Rohwer to Tule Lake,” said Takei, 82, who was a child when he and his family were imprisoned in concentration camps by the American government in 1942, more than two decades before he blazed a trail for Asians in Hollywood as “Star Trek” icon Hikaru Sulu. “There were no charges, no trial. We were rounded up.” Starting Aug. 12, Season 2 of AMC’s anthology “The Terror” — set within a WWII-era Japanese American community plagued by horrors supernatural and human — will bring new attention to this underexamined chapter in American history. read the complete article
How the largest American Muslim foundation was falsely demonised by white supremacists
Two in five Americans believe Islam is “incompatible” with US values, one in five would deny American Muslims the right to vote, and the vast majority see them as “insufficiently” American. Some 44 percent of Britons believe that Islam is a serious threat to Western civilisation and two thirds would not support the idea that Islam is compatible with the British way of life. While such racist myths were weaponised in the Brexit and Trump elections, they have a far longer currency. read the complete article
For five years, Facebook has let a white supremacist dog whistle thrive
On Saturday, a white supremacist killed 22 people and injured another two dozen in El Paso, TX, a city along the U.S.-Mexico border with an 80% Latinx population. Shortly before he opened fire, the gunman reportedly posted a manifesto online that was filled with anti-immigrant, white supremacist talking points. In the aftermath of this hate-fueled tragedy, one word from the gunman’s post became a fixation for the media and public: “invasion.” It’s a term white supremacists use to demonize immigrants of color. And Facebook has let right-wing pages use the racist dog whistle for years. read the complete article
Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics
Nazia Kazi’s Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics(Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) is a brilliant and powerful meditation on the intersection and interaction of Islamophobia, racism, and U.S. imperial state power. This book seeks to reorient our understanding of Islamophobia from a phenomenon centered on individual attitudes and perceptions of hate, to one which is indelibly entrenched to the structural logics of modern state sovereignty, and to the long-running history of racism in the U.S. Another distinctive feature of this book lies in its sustained and nuanced analysis of liberal Islamophobia in varied social and political domains, that tethers the promise of being categorized as “good Muslim” to the endorsement and celebration of American exceptionalism. read the complete article
Harris: White supremacy existed before Trump and will continue after he leaves office
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) pushed back against questions of whether President Trump is a white supremacist on Saturday, arguing that asking such questions ignore the "long history" of racism in the U.S. The 2020 candidate for president explained that racism and hatred are "not new in America" during a press conference at the Iowa State Fair. read the complete article
Hateful Graffiti Cleaned Up at Halal Butcher Shop
The Council on American-Islamic Relations was in Bloomfield Saturday to help clean up an anti-Muslim message on the side of Saba Live Poultry. The vandalism occurred after a former employee slaughtered a cow in a Home Depot parking lot, a story NBC Connecticut Investigates was first to report. Volunteers helped clean up the hateful graffiti that was spray-painted on the building. Messages such as "Cease with the needless slaughter" and "Muslims, go home" were seen spray-painted on the building. read the complete article
Twitter Torches Ivanka Trump's 'Eid Mubarak' Message To Muslims
Though Ivanka Trump may have meant well with her tweet, many felt that her sentiment wasn’t genuine, with critics pointing to President Donald Trump’s 2017 executive order that banned travel from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for three months, and indefinitely suspended travel from Syria. All are Muslim-majority countries, and all have refugee populations of varying sizes. read the complete article
What Muslim ban? 2020 Democrats go easy on Trump
Muslim operatives and activists are expressing alarm that their community has been all but neglected by the 2020 contenders as they focus on more prominent voting blocs. They say Trump has repeatedly antagonized Muslim Americans — not only with the travel ban barring most people from several majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States, but with his singling out of Muslim members of Congress — and based on the campaign, he appears to be getting away with it. read the complete article
China
Xinjiang: What China shows world vs. what former detainee describes
At the Shule County Vocational Skill Education Training Center, on the outskirts of Kashgar, the largest city in western Xinjiang, slogans displayed inside the building include "Patriotism," "Respect for Work" and "Wealth and Strength." More than 1,000 Uighurs in their 20s to 40s are enrolled at the center, which has a dormitory accommodating 10 in each room, a cafeteria and other facilities. The center claims it teaches other vocational skills besides Mandarin language, but it was not clear what they were. read the complete article
Norway
One injured in gun attack on Norwegian mosque
One person has been injured in a shooting inside a mosque in Norway, Oslo police said on Saturday, adding that one man had been apprehended. The suspected shooter at the al-Noor Islamic Centre near the country’s capital was described as “a young white man”, police added. The victim was a 75-year-old member of the congregation, mosque director Irfan Mushtaq told TV2. read the complete article
Norway Police Investigate Mosque Attack as Attempted ‘Act of Terrorism’
The police in Norway said on Sunday that they were investigating a foiled attack at a mosque near Oslo as an attempted act of terrorism after a white gunman in a helmet and body armor opened fire but was overpowered before injuring anyone. They also said a young woman found dead in the suspect’s home was his 17-year-old stepsister. Friends and former classmates of the suspect, whose name has not been released by the police but was being reported by Norwegian media, said he had taken increasingly extremist stances against immigrants and women. read the complete article
Worshipper, 65, takes down heavily armed mosque gunman before he can kill anyone
Witnesses said Mohamed Rafiq restrained the terror suspect and held him down with another worshipper before police arrived, despite being injured in the struggle. Mr. Rafiq was among three people at the al-Noor Islamic Centre in Baerum on Saturday, when a man burst in with “two shotgun-like weapons and a pistol”. read the complete article
India
Op-ed | India’s power grab in Kashmir puts a volatile region at risk of conflict and violence
The equilibrium has been maintained in part by a section of the Indian constitution known as Article 370, under which the Indian-controlled portion was granted a measure of autonomy. The region remained majority Muslim — the only area in the country that is — even as Hindu nationalists rose to power in India in recent years. read the complete article
Eid in Kashmir muted as India bans large congregations
Large congregations have been banned for the major Islamic festival of Eid in Indian-administered Kashmir, where an unprecedented communications block on landlines, mobile and the internet remained in place for an eighth day. Residents have been allowed to visit their local mosque, according to Indian officials, but the communications block means they have been unable to call relatives. Large congregations were banned in an apparent attempt to avoid anti-India protests. There is very little independent information about what is happening in Kashmir because of the communication blackout. Tens of thousands of troop reinforcements have flooded the main city of Srinagar and other Kashmir towns and villages. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Review of Prevent counter-extremism scheme risks becoming ‘whitewash’, government warned
A review of the controversial Prevent counter-extremism programme is at risk of becoming a “whitewash”, the government has been warned. The Home Office announced an assessment of the scheme in January, after years of dismissing human rights concerns and resisting persistent calls to overhaul it. Ministers told parliament the appointment, which is to be announced on Monday, was not advertised publicly because of time pressures and a suitable candidate would be chosen by the home secretary. read the complete article
New NUS president: I will always be racially profiled
The new president of the National Union of Students (NUS) has called for the government’s Prevent anti-radicalisation strategy to be scrapped and has urged universities to do more to tackle the black attainment gap and racism on campus. In her first interview since taking up office last month, Zamzam Ibrahim said she had seen the impact of Prevent in universities first-hand, with events being cancelled and students being referred because of membership of the Palestinian or Islamic societies. read the complete article